Nine, Seven swoop on government’s regional news fund

The owners of Nine and Seven are among more than 100 regional publishers and broadcasters set to receive funding from the Morrison government’s $50m program.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced on Monday that the $50m Public Interest News Gathering program would be split between 107 regional publishers and broadcasters. Picture: Getty Images

The owners of Nine and Seven are among more than 100 regional publishers and broadcasters set to receive funding from the Morrison government’s $50m program, following a double-digit drop in advertising revenue during the coronavirus crisis.

The Australian understands that Nine’s parent company, Nine Entertainment, has been offered funding by the government for its regional TV operations. Nine produces regional TV news bulletins for Southern Cross Media and owns NTD TV station in Darwin.

Some of Seven West Media’s regional newspapers in West Australia and regional TV operations in Queensland have been granted “small amounts of funding under the PING program,” a Seven spokesman said Monday.

The disclosure by cash-strapped Seven comes less than 24 hours after the Kerry Stokes-controlled group revealed that former Fairfax Media boss Greg Hywood had been tapped to review its West Australian newspaper division. Seven recently sold the Perth headquarters of its newspapers, The West Australian and The Sunday Times, for $75m and its Pacific Magazines business for $40m.

Other recipients include Antony Catalano‘s Australian Community Media, which will resume printing “dozens of local newspapers” this week following their suspension mid-April, plus Southern Cross and Prime Media.

ACM declined to specify how much funding it will receive, while Southern Cross and Prime Media publicly disclosed that they will receive $10m and $4.7m, respectively.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher announced on Monday that the $50m Public Interest News Gathering program would be split between 107 regional publishers and broadcasters. Five TV broadcaster applicants are set to receive $20m, while 13 radio broadcaster applicants will get $12m. The remaining $18m will be split among the 92 publishers that applied for the funding.

Mr Fletcher said three applicants were successful across two sectors, but stopped short of naming the companies.

News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian, wasn’t eligible for funding, and ViacomCBS’s Network Ten didn’t apply as it’s a metropolitan TV broadcaster.

Southern Cross chief executive Grant Blackley welcomed Mr Fletcher’s long-awaited announcement, saying “regional communities and businesses have been hit hard by COVID-19”.

“This funding will assist SCA‘s network of radio and television stations continue to keep 8.8 million Australians and their local communities in regional and remote Australia informed about news and events that matter most to them,” Mr Blackley said in a statement.

Southern Cross is eligible under both the regional radio stream through its 78 regional radio stations, and the regional TV stream through its network of regional TV licenses.

Prime CEO Ian Audsley said the coronavirus crisis has had a “significant impact” on its ad revenue across regional Australia, which has “added to the threat to uniquely local programming”.

“The proposed funding will greatly assist Prime to maintain its local TV news bulletins which have the largest audiences in their respective markets,” Mr Audsley said.

Applications were assessed through a demand-driven grant process overseen by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

The funding levels for each media sector were determined by the “overall reach” of each and an assessment of their costs in producing public interest journalism. Grants are conditional on the publishers of suspended mastheads returning them to operation and restarting print distribution. A majority of publishers who are receiving grants operate small-to-medium sized businesses like local papers.

The funding will be deployed across the 2021 financial year from July 1.